Tonight, Steve Jobs, who should be fatally ill according to rumor, presented the much expected Apple iPad 2 which will be available from the 11th of March in the US and distributed in the rest of the world form the 25th.

Apart from a good price (same as the original iPad, starting at $499), unchanged battery life and an updated operating system (iOS 4.3), these are the most dominant upgrades.

1 Dual-core A5 processor

Instead of the iPad’s single-core 1GHz A4 processor, the iPad has an awesome dual-core 1GHz A5 chip. All new, all Apple.

This makes it  twice as fast as the iPad 1 and packs nine times faster graphics.

2 Front and rear facing camera

Not much of a surprise, as there have been lots of clues about this already. This also means the introduction of FaceTime for iPad, which looks pretty cool and makes it even nicer to chat with someone and make it feel like the other one is actually there with you in the room.

3 33% thinner and a tad lighter than the iPad 1

Well, it’s ridiculously thin. The original was 13.4mm thick, the new design is no more than 8.8mm, which is thinner than the iPhone 4!  This also means the new models is a bit lighter.

4 White edition available

The white iPhone 4 isn’t even available yet and already Steve promises a white iPad 2 to ship right away. Personally, I don’t think it looks better than the slickness of the black version, but it’s a fine design.

5 Smart Covers

The official case, slash cover, slash stand, slash awesomeness series is called Smart Covers.

  • Case/cover: This thin physical add-on (clipped to the side of the device) actually serves as a case by flapping it over the screen and magnetically clipping it to the other side.
  • Stand: folding the flap into a triangle actually makes it work like a stand so you can place the iPad 2 in different angles. Simple, yet delightful.

6 New iOS 4.3 release

This new iOS release is obviously a bit more powerful than the current version and will come out the 11th of March for iPad, iPhone and iPod. Along with this update, Apple will also make available tablet-app versions of iMovie and GarageBand at the staggering low price of $4.99 per App! This makes it a great video and music editing device, right in your lap!

Look for some more information and video material on the Apple’s official iPad pages. Also, don’t forget to vote below!

[UPDATE] I couldn’t resist to share this movie when it just got posted on Engadget.com.. look how blazing fast this device is!